# Scorsese's Shutter Island postponed until February 2010: a bad sign? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 24, 2009, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470 "2009-08-24T05:09:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/1 "2009-08-24T05:09:51Z")
Anybody who’s been the movies over the last month or so has maybe seen previews for Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film, [**Shutter Island**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1130884/), starring his new favorite leading actor, Leonardo DiCaprio along with Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max Von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, and Emily Mortimer. Paramount was to have released the movie in October as one of its big potential Oscar-contenders. I say “was” because [the movie’s release has now been delayed until February 2010](http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/dicaprios-shutter-island-postponed-until-2010_1113676). Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO Brad Grey says, “(W)e have every confidence that **Shutter Island** is a great anchor to lead off our 2010 slate and the shift in date is the best decision for the film (and) the studio.” Translation: We have a big bomb on our hands and want it to go off as quietly as possible. Of course, maybe I’m being overly cynical about this decision but, from my perspective, this does not look promising. February is usually a time of year when the studios dump their dregs into the theaters–not a time when prospective Oscar candidates directed by legendary directors whose last movie won Best Picture are released. I like Scorsese’s films and thought **Shutter Island** at least looked interesting when I saw the preview a couple weeks ago (incidentally, I haven’t read the book it’s based on). However, this news makes me think that this is already shaping up to be one of the biggest disappointments of 2010 given the amount of talent involved. So, am I being overly pessimistic? ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/2 "2009-08-24T05:24:17Z")
I’d heard good word on it so I’m giving the benefit of the doubt that it really was delayed because Paramount doesn’t have the money for a full on awards season promotional push, especially with DiCaprio only having limited availability for promotion this fall. There’s also thinking that if the 10-slot best picture change survives into a sophomore year that it will be much easier for a movie to get nominated from an early year release. Or it might suck. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/3 "2009-08-24T05:33:20Z")
All I know is they’ve been running that trailer on _everything_ I’ve seen recently, from _District 9_ to _Live Hard, Sell Hard_. I just got back from _500 Dead Men Walking_ and it was on that too. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/4 "2009-08-24T06:01:23Z")
I can see the headline in Variety now - '_ **Shudder’ Island?** _ ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/5 "2009-08-24T06:29:46Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > I can see the headline in Variety now - '_ **Shudder’ Island?** _ That wouldn’t work for _Variety_, since it’s parseable as standard English. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/6 "2009-08-24T23:30:53Z")
If not for the all star cast, this would strike me as a typical twlight zone style horror suspense film. It seems fairly obvious from the trailer that he himself is the mysterious extra mental patient and always has been, and the idea of him coming to the island as an investigator is his delusion. His wife and kid were killed in a fire and this has driven him crazy, or perhaps he even started the fire himself and feels guilty about it. Unless they have clever misleading trailer editors but I would be surprised. Might still see it for the atmosphere, but it looks like the plot is telegraphed and the mystery will be no big surprise. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/7 "2009-08-25T18:18:27Z")
1. Delaying the release of a film. Can be a bad sign, not always. 2. Delaying the release of an Oscar™-bait film until the next year. Never good. 3. Delaying the release of any film until February. Rarely good. Adding it all up, I get _shakes 8-Ball_ “not good”. (There has been a trend in recent years of movies doing surprisingly well in the traditional “dead months” of Jan. and Feb., but I don’t think this is another “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”.) ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/8 "2009-08-25T18:25:18Z")
NOOOO! I really enjoyed the book, and I’ve been looking forward to the movie for awhile now. Now I’m starting to fear what Scorsese hath wrought. I’ll still see it, but I’m very apprehensive now. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/9 "2009-08-25T18:41:02Z")
Well, if you were looking forward to it, and haven’t read the book, I too highly recommend it. If the trailers are telegraphing the plot, they really are screwing things up royally and nothing good can come of it. Read the book before it’s too late. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/10 "2009-08-25T19:09:24Z")
> [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](#): > > Well, if you were looking forward to it, and haven’t read the book, I too highly recommend it. If the trailers are telegraphing the plot, they really are screwing things up royally and nothing good can come of it. Read the book before it’s too late. The trailer _seems_ to be doing so, but not having read the book I couldn’t say. But certainly that impression as given by the trailer is what was putting the movie on my personal no-interest list. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/11 "2009-08-26T07:25:47Z")
> [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](#): > > Well, if you were looking forward to it, and haven’t read the book, I too highly recommend it. If the trailers are telegraphing the plot, they really are screwing things up royally and nothing good can come of it. Read the book before it’s too late. Wow I had no idea it was a book. That makes it slightly less likely to suck. The trailer looks like it’s telegraphing the plot but of course there’s no way for me to know without seeing the movie or assuming the plot is the same reading the book. I’m probably seeing the movie anyway, so given that it’s a mystery I’d rather leave open the possibiliity that I’ll be surprised. I might check out the book later though. It will be difficult to resist not looking it up on wikipedia all the way until February! ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/12 "2009-08-26T19:11:12Z")
IMO, the trailers don’t look promising either. I’ve seen trailers for it in the last few movies I’ve been to and I think it looks dull. I agree moving it to Feb seems to be a bad omen for it. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/13 "2009-08-26T19:25:10Z")
I dunno, I think the studio exec might actually be telling the truth as hard as that is to believe. Maybe he really thought it would do better for them in 2010 than 2009. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/14 "2009-08-26T19:58:07Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > All I know is they’ve been running that trailer on _everything_ I’ve seen recently, from _District 9_ to _Live Hard, Sell Hard_. I just got back from _500 Dead Men Walking_ and it was on that too. It’s OK, they only show 75% of the movie in the preview. :rolleyes: /pet peeve I have to close my eyes and cover my ears as I like to know as little as possible before going into the movie. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/15 "2009-08-26T20:03:45Z")
February is one of the weakest months for movie releases, in my recollection. It seems odd to push a Scorsese-directed film to February instead of releasing it within the Oscar Corridor of the last three months of the year. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/16 "2009-08-26T20:13:48Z")
Normally I would say this means the movie is terrible…but Paramount just had a big shakup in their leadership with the exec that brought many of these movies into the studio leaving rather unceremoniously and Paramount is dumping tons of stuff. The Jeremy Piven movie The Goods is being pulled from wide release and taken back to limited release, and they have two other movies that aren’t even being released in New York and LA. The new administration over there seems way more vindictive than is usual in these situations, so much so that the LA Times did a story in the front of the Calandar section about it yesterday. It would not surprise me at all if Shutter Island isn’t being dumped into the dead zone because the new execs don’t want the old execs movie pulling in awards, or getting any sort of positive attention. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/17 "2009-08-26T20:31:17Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > It would not surprise me at all if Shutter Island isn’t being dumped into the dead zone because the new execs don’t want the old execs movie pulling in awards, or getting any sort of positive attention. Man, I hope you’re right. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/18 "2009-08-26T21:05:38Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > \ It would not surprise me at all if Shutter Island isn’t being dumped into the dead zone because the new execs don’t want the old execs movie pulling in awards, or getting any sort of positive attention. I don’t know - you’d think a director like Scorsese would have enough pull to get around that. (I don’t know squat about the movie business’ politics though.) ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/19 "2009-08-26T21:30:36Z")
He probably would. But Paramount really does have money problems so the idea that they simply can’t afford a major award movie advertising push does have some ring of truth to me. And of course, even if they decided that _Shutter Island_ isn’t likely to win awards and therefore they don’t want to spend the money trying is not quite the same thing as saying a movie sucks (lots of perfectly good movies have no real Oscar potential). Or, it may suck. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470/20 "2009-08-26T21:44:30Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > Or, it may suck. Yeah, that is always going to be a possibility. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scorseses-shutter-island-postponed-until-february-2010-a-bad-sign/507470.md?page=2)